The River of Time
by Perseus Malfoy
Summary: A new time travel device has been created and the golden trio is determined to use it to bring back Fred, Lupin, and Tonks. When the device breaks, a certain Malfoy begins to tamper with their past... for what is the present without a beginning?
1. Sectumsempra

Steam rose from the train as Hermione and Ron Weasley pushed through the crowded Kings Cross station, searching for Harry Potter. Their daughter, Rose, rushed ahead with her brother, their red heads bobbing in the sea of witches and wizards.

"Hey! Hermione! Ron!" Harry shouted out when he spotted the group of gingers.

"Harry!" Hermione rushed ahead to greet him. Albus stood next to his father, twirling his wand carelessly between two fingers and glancing around the station. James and Lily sat at their feet, feeding seeds to Lily's new owl.

"Hey, Al, how are you?" Ron patted Albus on the back as he reached his friend. "Ready for another year at school?"

Albus shrugged nonchalantly, "I guess."

"What about you, James? Taking O.W.L.s this year, aren't you?"

"Unfortunately." James sighed from the cement floor. He looked down at his watch, "We should get on the train, it leaves in a minute."

"Al!" A voice called from behind them. A white-blonde head appeared in the crowd as Scorpius Malfoy made his way towards Albus. Rose smiled at the pale skinned boy, then yelped as her father elbowed her. Ron scowled as young Scorpius was followed by Draco Malfoy.

"Well, if it isn't the Potter's and Weasley's back for another year at Hogwarts." Draco droned, smirking at Ron's hateful stare.

Harry watched as Albus and Scorpius walked towards the train together, laughing and flicking their wands in the air, talking about a new spell Albus had learned. Their friendship had always come as a surprise to him, but he'd learned to accept it over the past three years. Ron, however, had not.

"How can you let him hang out with that kid?" Ron asked as Draco walked away to say goodbye to his son. "You know he'll end up just like his father, a foul git!"

"You can't say that, he seems different. I think Malfoy's trying to make him a better person than he was." Harry said, still watching Al and Scorpius disappear down the train tracks. "You agree, don't you, Hermione?"

"Well, he does like to make trouble..." Hermione admitted, "Remember that explosion in their second year? Al and him almost got Rose expelled!"

"Come on, they were just having fun!" Harry exclaimed, though he knew Hermione was right.

"As long as Rose doesn't join them, I'm fine with it." Hermione shrugged.

"Fine. Well, I have to get home, Ginny's making dinner. Do you guys want to come over?" Harry asked, trying to change the subject.

"Sure, we'd –"

"POTTER!"

Harry turned just as Draco pushed him up against the station wall and punched him in the face. Hermione screamed and helped Harry from the floor as Ron tried to pull Draco off of him.

"Get off of me!" Draco screeched, straining against Ron's grasp, "I'll get you for this one, Potter!"

"What are you talking about, Malfoy?" Harry asked, "I didn't do anything!"

"You can't go teaching your son those kinds of spells! You know what it can do!" Draco pulled himself out of Ron's hands and stood over Harry, his face contorted.

Harry stared up at the pale face, wiping blood from his nose and holding his wand beneath his robes.

"Sectumsempra." Malfoy breathed, "You taught it to him, didn't you?"

"No!" Harry exclaimed. "I'd never do that! Why would I ever want anyone to have to go through the same pain you felt or the fear I did?"  
Malfoy glared at Harry. "_Please_. You don't care. You'd like to see my son bleeding on the bathroom floor one day!"

He moved toward Harry again, but Hermione stood between them.

"Stop it, Draco, this is ridiculous." She urged, "Calm down."

"No one asked your opinion, you filthy little mudblood." He sneered.

Hermione's eyes widened as Ron and Harry both lunged at Malfoy. Before she could stop them, Teddy Lupin ran over and put himself between their fight.

Harry and Draco glared at each other. Then, Draco turned and stalked away.

Hermione looked from Ron to Harry. "You know, you can't go attacking everyone that makes you angry. Your glasses are broken, Harry."

Harry looked at the ground where Hermione was pointing and realized that his glasses had been knocked off. He picked them off the floor and fixed them on his face.

"_Oculus Reparo!_" Hermione flicked her wand and the glasses instantly repaired themselves.

"Thanks." Harry said, attempting to cover the blood stains across his shirt. "I don't know what Malfoy's talking about. I didn't teach Albus that spell. Where'd he even get that idea? Did he hear Al talking about it?"

"Don't worry about it, Harry. Even if Albus did know the spell, I'm sure he wouldn't use it to hurt anyone."

"But where would he have learned it?" Harry whispered to himself. He didn't think he'd written it down, it couldn't be in any of the books as school, unless Al had managed to find it... but it had to have been burnt in the fire...


	2. The Plant

"Harry, come look at this." Hermione waved him over to an abandoned newspaper on the station floor.

Harry bent down and picked it up. "Famous Herbologist Neville Longbottom Discovers New Time Travel Plant. Presentation Tonight at Ministry of Magic." He looked up at Hermione. "That's incredible. We should go see him and, you know, support him."

"Definitely." Ron nodded. "It has to have been a year since we last saw him."

"It's tonight at 7:00. We could eat and go over there." Harry suggested.

The others nodded and followed him from the station.

"It's not as crowded as I expected." Ron whispered as the trio entered the Ministry of Magic. "Why isn't anyone here?"

"Poor Neville." Hermione said. "He deserves a bigger turn out than this."

"Hey, guys!" A voice called from across the lobby. Neville Longbottom ran forward to meet them. "Where have you been?"

"We just got here. Why aren't you in your presentation?" Harry asked.

"It just finished. I was hoping you'd show up..."

"Oh, Neville!" Hermione cried out, "We're sorry! We thought it was at 7:00!" She glared at Harry.

"Sorry! I must have read it wrong." Harry apologized, searching his briefcase for that morning's Prophet.

"No, no, they changed the time last minute. Seems to be a common thing here at the Ministry, doesn't it?" Neville smiled feebly. "Come on inside, we're about to demonstrate it!"

They followed Neville in to a large, round room surrounded by tall stone walls. The ceiling opened up to the sky fifty feet above the elevated platform in the center.

Neville made his way through the gathering crowd and stepped onto the circular stage. "Hello! Hello, everyone! Please, quiet down! Excuse me?"

The crowd slowly began to turn towards Neville. "Thank you." He smiled uncomfortably. "Now, as you already know, this plant can take you through time, both to the past and the future." He gestured to a small green plant writhing in a pot behind him. It wiggled towards him as he spoke of it.

"Finally, I am going to show you exactly how it works. Does anyone want to try to go back in time?"

Excited voices filled the room. Hermione turned towards Harry and Ron, "Imagine if we could go back in time? We could... we could save so many people! Tonks, Lupin, Fred..."

"Don't worry, it's completely safe, I'll have constant communication with you." He turned towards Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "I'm going to choose one lucky group of people to try this. Not only is this group lucky, but it's also one of the most famous trios in the entire wizarding world."

Hermione gasped and gestured toward herself questioningly. Neville nodded. The three moved up the podium steps as Neville said, "Please welcome my old friends, Ron and Hermione Weasley and Harry Potter himself!"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione waved to the crowd and stood next to Neville. After several introductions and many assurances, Neville brought forward his plant and three gold watches.

"In order to go back in time, you have to eat some of the plant. These watches will allow me to communicate with you through time." He handed each of them a watch. "When you want to come forward in time, just eat some more of the plant. Where are you all going back to?"

"Our seventh year at Hogwarts." Harry answered.

The crowd murmured its interest.

"Alright, then, this should do it." He pulled a few leaves off of the plant and handed it to them, shoving the rest into a small bag. Hermione took the pouch as Neville turned back to the crowd. "Ready, everyone? Go ahead, guys."

The three placed the leaves on their tongues and disappeared from the room.


	3. The Sorting

Harry found himself sitting alone in an empty train compartment. Instantly recognizing it as the Hogwarts Express, he quickly stood up and made his way towards the door, only to find it blocked by three all too familiar red headed boys.

"Harry!" Ron cried as he entered the compartment. Fred and George followed.

"Listen, we're going down to the middle of the train – Lee Jordan's got a tarantula down there!" George smiled.

"Okay. Go ahead."

"Harry," said Fred, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasely. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then."

"See you." Harry waved, wondering why Fred and George had just acted like they were meeting him for the first time. The compartment door closed.

"Harry! Something's gone wrong!"

"What are you talking about?"

"We went too far back! This is our first year, not our seventh! Oh, where's Hermione?" Ron stuck his head out the door just as a bush of brown hair appeared.

"There you are! What went wrong?" She asked as she sat down.

Harry felt his watch vibrate. Lifting his arm, he heard Neville's voice echo around the compartment.

"Sorry, guys! I may have given you a little too much of the plant. Don't worry, I think you might have enough to get one of you home safely!"

Hermione's eyes widened and Ron looked like he'd just swallowed a bogey flavored Every-Flavored bean.

"If you each take it in small amounts you can probably get to your seventh year though! Each time you eat some of it, you travel a bit less forward in time. The first time you eat some of it you'll go about a year, then 9 months, then six, then three, then one, the about a week. By then you'll be in your seventh year if you wait in between each time. Just make sure you do everything exactly as you did back then, or you might change everything! It probably won't affect me because all time happens simultaneously, that's why you can travel through it..." Neville's voice faded as he realized his friends' silence. "I'm really sorry, guys! I'll try to find a way to get you back. In the meantime, try to do everything the same! Bye!"

His voice disappeared as the compartment door opened once again. A pale young boy stepped in with two larger companions. Harry sighed and resisted the temptation to roll his eyes.

"Is it true?" Draco Malfoy asked. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter is in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"

"Yes." Harry said, staring up at Malfoy.

Malfoy nodded. "This is Crabbe and Goyle." He motioned towards his friends. "And I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy."

"Fabulous." Ron said sarcastically. "Just fantastic to meet you, Malfoy."

"Think my names funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all Weaselys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford." He smirked. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't won't to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

He put out his hand to shake Harry's. Harry glared at Malfoy, remembering his response years ago. He was about to repeat it when a small voice in the back of his mind asked, _what would have happened had I gone with Draco? What would have happened had we been friends?_

He shook off the thought and replied, "I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks."

"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter -"

"Just get out of here, Malfoy, alright?" Ron interrupted.

Hermione and Draco's eyes both widened. Slightly pink, Draco left the compartment, Crabbe and Goyle following closely behind.

"Ron, you shouldn't have done that! We're supposed to do everything exactly the same!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Well, sorry, Malfoy was irking me! I thought we were done with him years ago, and now he's just popping up everywhere! At King's Cross, here, and don't even get me started on Scorpius -"

"Ron, stop!" Hermione shouted. "We're lucky if you haven't changed anything. Now, try to get it right until we can think of a plan."

"Right." Harry agreed. "How about we move on to our second year after the sorting. I feel like there's more this year that can be messed up than most years, so we should let everything play out as it would instead of going on to change more events."

"I agree." Hermione nodded. "Then we'll just keep waiting the right amount of time so that we end up in our seventh year at the right time. A little bit earlier than we would have liked, but I'd rather be safe than sorry."

The train screeched to a halt and Harry looked out the window to see the silhouette of Hogwarts appear in front of him. He couldn't help but smile as they arrived and climbed off of the train.

"Firs' years! Firs' years, over here! Alright there, Harry?" Hagrid patted Harry on the back as he, Ron, and Hermione joined the other first years.

Harry's mind was a blur of happiness and excitement as they reached his old school. Everything was exactly as he remembered it - not the ruined place he had left behind in his seventh year, but the welcoming home he'd grown to love and yearn for year after year.

The sorting began. Harry watched as Hannah Abbott climbed the steps to the front of the hall, becoming the first Hufflepuff. Lavender Brown and Seamus made their way to the Gryffindor table, and, although he'd known it would happen, Harry couldn't help himself from clapping as Hermione and Ron made their way over as well. Malfoy smiled as the hat touched his head and he strutted to the Slytherin table.

At last, Harry heard his name called. The hall went silent as he made his way to the sorting hat and it was placed on his head.

He listened to the hat whisper its thoughts as it pondered on which house to place Harry in. Harry knew he'd be in Gryffindor, why interrupt the hats thoughts? If he said something, couldn't it just change the hats mind anyway?

Harry realized his mistake too late. Just as he was about to protest the hats decision, it shouted, "SLYTHERIN!"

Harry was stunned. How could he be so stupid? How could he forget to object the hat's idea? He sat there, frozen, until Professor McGonagall almost had to push him off his seat and to the Slytherin table. In his daze he even ended up sitting next to Malfoy, who congratulated and welcomed him happily, as if their quarrel on the train hadn't happened.

Everything had gone wrong.


	4. The New Slytherin

"Harry, what the _hell_ did you do?" Ron shouted as soon as they had been let out of the hall. "WHY ARE YOU IN SLYTHERIN? This is going to ruin everything!"

"Harry, what went wrong?" Hermione asked, her eyes full of concern.

"I... I kind of didn't tell the hat not to put me in Slytherin..." Harry mumbled. The look on Hermione's face forced him into excuses. "I don't know why, I just didn't think of it! I figured if I said anything, the hat might change its mind. Keeping quiet seemed the best to me..."

"But you knew you didn't want to be in Slytherin! When the hat was going on about it, why didn't you stop it! I even _told_ you in our first year that you didn't want to be in Slytherin!"

Hermione's expression changed from shock to realization. "Harry, I know what happened. When we were on the train, you and Ron never got to have that conversation about the different houses and everything, meaning you'd never realized that you didn't want to be in Slytherin. Since you hadn't known that, you couldn't have told the hat not to put you there!"

Harry nodded, realizing what had gone wrong. "I'm surprised we didn't figure that out on the train."

"We probably would have if Malfoy hadn't come in." Ron said, rolling his eyes.

"Don't blame him, Ron." Hermione sighed.

"Why not, it's clearly his fault. We probably would've made a plan and everything if it wasn't for him!" Ron exclaimed.

"He's kind of right, Hermione." Harry said, tentatively.

"Slytherin first years, follow me!" A deep voice called as Percy's voice yelled out, "Gryffindor first years, over here. I'm a prefect, come on!"

"We have to go, Harry. We can talk about this later-"

"When? I'm stuck with the other Slytherins!"

"Well, if you really need to, you could come see us in the common room at night. You know, when no one else is there." Ron suggested.

"That could work. This year the password is Caput Draconis, if I remember it correctly." Hermione told Harry. "But unless it's essential, you probably shouldn't come. We'll talk to you tomorrow morning."

Harry nodded as he went to follow the Slytherins towards the dungeons.

Harry sat on his new green covered bed, staring remorsefully at Draco Malfoy as he fixed his trunk on the bed next to him. Being late to follow the other Slytherins, Harry had been forced to the only bed left in the boys dormitory, which, of course, happened to be next to the one boy he despised most at the moment besides himself.

The room was silent except for the rustling of cloaks and clothes being stowed away. Across the room, Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott were arguing with Crabbe over who got which bed. Goyle sat on the bed on the other side of Malfoy, scattering his belongings across the covers.

Once everyone had finished unpacking and climbed into bed, the room became disturbingly quiet. Even though the lights had been turned off, Harry could feel everyone's eyes on him.

Malfoy finally broke the silence, "So, Potter, is it true that you've got the lightning scar on your forehead?"

Harry sat up and pushed his hair back to reveal the scar. The boys' eyes widened, and Malfoy asked, "How did you manage to beat him?"

"Well... I-" Harry was about to answer, but decided against it. He wasn't even supposed to know the answer to that yet, was he? Could just telling them affect the future? "I don't know. I was a baby. I didn't really do anything."

Malfoy smirked, as if he'd known all along that it hadn't been Harry that had destroyed Voldemort.

Draco began to talk about his father's job in the ministry and bragged of his long lasting Slytherin family, conveniently leaving Sirius out, as Harry lay back down on his new green bedding.

How he managed to sleep after what had happened, he didn't know, but the sounds of snoring and Malfoy's drawling voice put him to sleep.

"Harry, we're meeting near the Room of Requirement after breakfast." Hermione whispered as she passed the Slytherin table the next morning. Harry looked up to see her and Ron sitting with the rest of the Gryffindors.

"Does anyone know what class we have first?" Draco asked. Unfortunately for Harry, Malfoy had decided it was essential to sit next to the legendary Boy Who Lived that morning.

"Potions, I think." Goyle said from across the table. "Heard Snape's teaching it. He seems cool, doesn't he?"

Draco smirked and nodded. Harry sighed and picked at his sausage. Soon, breakfast had ended and the first years walked happily to their first classes at Hogwarts. Harry made his way up to the Room of Requirement to find Ron and Hermione. They stood in front of the blank wall, waiting for him.

"Neville, how much should we eat to move forward one year?" Hermione whispered into the watch.

"Only about the size of a fingernail, I think. Not much." Neville's voice answered.

Hermione pulled leaves from her bag and pulled Ron and Harry after her into the Room of Requirement. It had transformed into a long empty room with a sun roof sending light across the tiled floor. Holding the leaves between their fingers, the trio walked to the center of the room.

"Remember, by going forward a year, we're leaving our future up to fate." She glanced at Harry. "Because of certain mistakes made, we can't be sure what's happened to us in the next year. Hopefully, Harry's still gotten the Philosophers Stone. Oh, I hope we didn't change too much."

"Don't worry, Hermione. It'll be fine." Ron assured her. He looked at Harry. "Ready?"

Harry nodded. "On three."

Hermione started, "One... two... three."

Once again, the leaves touched their tongues and they disappeared.


	5. Malfoy's Best Mate

**N/A: SORRY GUYS! I've been really busy, ****I had writers block for almost two weeks (it's still just going away. I'm still getting stuck at points), but now it's winter break and I finally finished this chapter (though I don't like it very much…). I'll get the next one up faster, I promise! Sorry!**

Harry was walking with Draco Malfoy to Herbology class.

Why he stood next to him, why his shoulder was brushing against his, why he would _ever_ be walking with one of his greatest enemies, certainly from this period of his life, Harry didn't know. He barely even noticed until Malfoy started talking to him.

"Harry, have you seen Granger? I still have one of her books from last year." He laughed, "I'm surprised she didn't hunt me down and steal it over the summer."

_Had Malfoy just called him_ Harry_? And why was he referring to Hermione as if they were friends?_ Harry looked up at Malfoy, confused.

"So, you and Weasley made quite an entrance last night." Draco said. "How's Snape punished you? You're clearly not expelled, but did you get detention or something?"

"Oh, uh, yeah." Harry stammered, looking away as they entered the Herbology classroom. Harry sat in the seat he had usually shared with Ron, but frowned at his desk as Draco sat next to him. Besides the fact that Malfoy was sitting inches from him and not shouting insults, Harry was glad that he would at least get to see Hermione and Ron again.

"Granger!" Draco yelled out on seeing Hermione's bush of hair. Her eyes widened at the sight of him. Malfoy walked up to her, ignoring Ron's hateful stare. "I've got your book."

Hermione looked down at the book and back up at Draco. "Oh, um... thank you?"

Draco smiled and walked back to his seat. Harry got up to meet Hermione and Ron at the door.

"What's up with him?" Ron asked.

"I don't know, I think... I think we might have become friends with him or something." Harry guessed.

"Well, of course!" Hermione exclaimed. "Harry, you were in Slytherin with him. He probably befriended you and because you were already friends with us... he must have joined in."

"But why would he do that? No offence, Hermione, but he kind of hates you. And you, Ron." Harry said.

Hermione shrugged. "It's too late to change it now, isn't it? Let's just see how it plays out."

They walked back to their seats, Hermione whispering the plans for their second year.

"This time, we can only move forward nine months. If we want to come back around the sorting like we did this time, we'll have to stay in this time period for three months. So, until the beginning of December. Was the Chamber of Secrets opened by then?"

"Yeah, it was opened in October, wasn't it?" Ron asked.

"Everyone! Gather around!" Professor Sprout called.

Harry sighed and moved next to Malfoy, wishing only to be back in his own time instead of having to deal with the new mandrakes being brought into the classroom.

After almost two months of his second year, Harry began to realize that his becoming a Slytherin hadn't made much of a difference at Hogwarts. Harry had become the youngest seeker on the Slytherin quidditch team the year before, leaving Malfoy without a quidditch career. The only large difference was that he had seemed to become Malfoy's best mate.

"I heard Granger and Weasley are going to Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party today." Malfoy said at dinner on Halloween night. "I still can't believe they agreed to go to that. Wouldn't it be boring? I mean, everyone's dead..."

Harry failed to hide his smile, remembering his experience at the party all those years ago. He imagined Hermione and Ron having to endure it again and almost laughed out loud.

Harry and Draco were just heading up to the common room when he heard it. The basilisk was whispering as it traveled through the pipes again.

"I have to go." Harry called back to Draco before running toward where he knew Mrs. Norris would be petrified.

He met Hermione and Ron staring at the frozen cat and the sprawled message on the wall. Draco caught up, followed by a few other Slytherins. Slowly a crowd began to gather. Harry listened as Filch and Dumbledore debated over the cat's state, then stood with Ron, Hermione, and Draco as the students filed out of the hall.

"The Chamber of Secrets? I feel like I've heard of it before..." Draco said, looking up at the message. "Do you know anything about it, Granger?"

"Oh, um... no." Hermione said in response to the look she got from Harry.

"Enemies of the Heir, beware..." Malfoy glanced at the others, hoping for some form of recognition at the name. His eyes lingered on Harry. He sighed, "Well, I'm going down to the common room. Are you coming, Harry?"

"Uh, yeah, I'll be down in a minute." Harry said. He wanted to talk to Hermione and Ron.

The second Malfoy had disappeared, Harry turned back to his friends, "Are we still using polyjuice potion?"

"Well, we're not going to be in this time period to use it." Hermione said.

"But won't not at least planning change our future? I mean, if we hadn't planned it, it wouldn't have happened." Ron pointed out.

"I suppose." Hermione sighed. "I wish we were home."

Harry was about to agree, but he knew that he was home. Sure, he'd messed it up, but even being friends with Malfoy couldn't ruin the first place he'd even felt he belonged.

November arrived, bringing colder weather and the first quidditch game of the year, Gryffindor vs Slytherin. Harry was a bit worried about playing his past team and almost planned to let them win, when he realized that he'd caught the snitch in this game. Was it possible that just catching the snitch could impact the future? And wasn't this the game when the bludger hit him right after he caught the snitch?

"Ready for the big game?" Draco asked as he sat down for breakfast next to Harry.

Harry sighed and glanced up at Malfoy, then back at his untouched breakfast. "Not really."

"Well, you better get ready. Weasley was saying that they'd beat us. I want to prove him wrong." Malfoy smirked.

Harry kept his eyes on the eggs in front of him.

"What? Is something wrong?" Draco asked, moving his head so he could see Harry's face.

"I'm fine." Harry insisted.

Draco stared at him for a moment. "Harry, you're the best seeker Hogwarts has seen in years. You're going to be fine today."

Harry looked at him suspiciously. Malfoy being _nice_ to him? And he'd gone and called him _Harry_ again. Before he could respond to Draco's odd behavior, Hermione and Ron walked towards them, stopping in front of the two boys. Draco took his eyes away from Harry and glared up at them.

"Hey." Harry said, shifting awkwardly away from Draco.

Ron glanced from Malfoy to Harry, then up at Hermione. When she didn't say anything, he turned back to Harry. "Meet us near the Room of Requirement after the game. Neville wants to talk to us."

Draco looked past Ron at the Gryffindor table, trying to find the Neville he figured they were talking about. Ron rolled his eyes and walked away, leaving Draco perplexed and annoyed.

"What was that all about?" He asked.

Harry shrugged, "I should go though. You know, get ready for the game."

Draco nodded. "I'll come. I've got that essay for Potions I never finished."

Harry sighed, having hoped to get away from Malfoy, and stood up from the table. The two of them walked to the Slytherin dormitories, Malfoy going on about the essay he was writing and the Quidditch game, Harry pretending to listen while thinking of what Neville could possibly want with them. They still had a month to wait if they were going to arrive at the beginning of their third year.  
The two boys arrived in their dormitories. Draco jumped on his bed and took out his essay while Harry changed into his Quidditch uniform. It felt strange to wear the uniform he had dreaded to see all those years ago.

Harry left Draco and met the team on the Quidditch pitch. He saw Oliver Wood preparing the Gryffindors across the field. Before he knew it, the stands began to fill and the students' cheers rang in his ears. The team flew out onto the pitch, getting into position. Harry looked up into the stands to find Hermione and Ron cheering for him. He glanced toward the Slytherins and saw Draco yelling too.

The snitch was released and the quaffles and bludgers were let loose in the field, beginning the game. Harry flew above the pitch and searched for the snitch, keeping a close watch on the bludgers of the corner of his eye. The rogue one swerved around and began closing in on him. Harry dashed toward the ground as the bludger charged at him, the crowd's shouts ringing in his ears.

Harry tried to dodge the bludger, but it spun and swerved after him. He had figured he'd be able to avoid the bludger fairly easily, having done it before, but he could barely keep the ball from knocking him off his broom. The game continued around him, but Harry barely noticed. He flew around a Gryffindor banner as a glint of gold caught his eye. The snitch sped past, followed by the Gryffindor seeker. Harry swerved after him, the bludger blowing a whole in the banner behind him. The other seeker turned and saw Harry, then let his eyes fall on the bludger chasing him. In the second that the seeker turned away, Harry swooped next to him towards the snitch. The boy tried to move ahead of Harry, but Harry was too quick for him. His hand extended, Harry glided forward and ahead of the other seeker. He felt his hand close around the gold sphere and looked behind him so he could see the boys face.

Instead he was greeted by a rogue bludger to the head and darkness.


End file.
